Cale Young Rice

“ Rice has the technical cunning that makes up almost the entire equipment of many poets nowadays, but human nature is more to him always ... and he has the feeling and imaginative sympathy without which all poetry is but an empty and vain thing."—The London Bookman.
"Mr. Rice's note is a clarion call, and of his two poems, 'The Strong Man to His Sires' and 'The Young to the Old,' the former will send a thrill to the heart of every man who has the instinct of race in his blood, while the latter should be printed above the desk of every minor poet and pessimist.... ”

“ Osio, haunted and desperate, stands without the bower, watching Matteo who is stealthily coming down from the pedestal of the Virgin where he has climbed to listen, and who crosses the terrace to him. ”

“ Some years ago while writing "A Night In Avignon" the thought came to me of framing two other plays that should deal respectively with the Renaissance spirit at its height and decadence, as that play had dealt with it at its beginning. For the great human upheaval that came intoxicatingly to Italy during the fourteenth, fifteenth and sixteenth centuries is so full of æsthetic contrast and glamor as to be peculiarly suitable for the doubly exacting purposes of poetic drama. ”

“ Rice's forte is a poetic drama. Yet in the act of saying this the critic is confronted by such poems as The Mystic.... These are the poems of a thinker, a man of large horizons, an optimist profoundly impressed with the pathos of man's quest for happiness in all lands."—The Chicago Record-Herald.
"Mr. Rice's latest volume shows no diminution of poetic power. Fecundity is a mark of the genuine poet, and a glance through these pages will demonstrate how rich Mr. Rice is in vitality and variety of thought.... There is too, the unmistakable quality of style. ”

“ Mr. Rice never [like Stephen Phillips] mistakes strenuous phrase for strong thought. He makes his blank verse his servant, and it has the stage merit of possessing the freedom of prose while retaining the impassioned movement of poetry.—The Glasgow (Scotland) Herald.
These firm and vivid pieces of work are truly welcome as examples of poetic force that succeeds without the help of poetic license.—The Literary World (London.)
We do not possess a living American poet whose utterance is so clear, so felicitous, so free from the inane and meretricious folly of sugared lines.... ”

“ Is reaching her arms to him when a shudder takes her. Her hand goes up to her brow and her gaze wanly flutters. Then suddenly her trance breaks and she shrinks screaming.
It is not he! not Rizzio! Not he!
Marina! Bianca! Help! not he! help; help! ”

“ Is near door, when Porzia herself like a wraith appears—and at the same time Osio is seen in the entrance to bower. Before Porzia's sleep-fixed eyes Rizzio falls back: her somnambulant speech breaks faintly.
Porzia.
The night is as a spell. No more of physic. ”

“ That in Cale Young Rice a new American poet of great power and originality has arisen cannot be denied. He has somehow discovered the secret of the mystery, wonder and spirituality of human existence, which has been all but lost in our commercial civilization. May he succeed in awakening our people from sordid dreams of gain.—Rochester (N. Y.) Post Express.
No writer in England or America holds himself to higher ideals (than Mr. Rice) and everything he does bears the imprint of exquisite taste and the finest poetic instinct.—The Portland Oregonian. ”

“ To her look of helplessness.
O say it! for you gaze—as if you could not!
As if ... O what is wringing you! You can
Not say it—that no arms but mine have held you,
No lips but mine have ever lingered, ever—? ”

“ Matteo!
Matteo.
Signor— (advancing) here.
Osio.
You have done well.
And from to-night I take you to my service,
With wages that shall gild you from a want,
And with the benediction of the Church.
But there is one thing more:
Follow Monsignor Querio to the prison,
Then to Signora Porzia return—
And say her husband sent you
To bid her be in the bower there at midnight.
Matteo (staring) .
But Signor, will she come?
Osio.
Say that she is
To speak no word—but keep to silence: go. ”

“ CHARLES DI TOCCA
By
CALE YOUNG RICE
"I take off my hat to Mr. Rice. His play is full of poetry, and the pitch and dignity of the whole are remarkable."—James Lane Allen.
"It is a dramatic poem one reads with a heightened sense of its fine quality throughout. It is sincere, strong, finished and noble, and sustains its distinction of manner to the end.... The character of Helena is not unworthy of any of the great masters of dramatic utterance."—The Chicago Tribune.
"The drama is one of the best of the kind ever written by an American author. ”

“ Rice's work would seem to rank with the best of our American poets of to-day."—The Atlanta Constitution.
"Mr. Rice's poems are touched with the magic of the muse. They have inspiration, grace and true lyric quality."—The Book News Monthly.
"Mr. Rice's poetry as a whole is both strongly and delicately spiritual. Many of these lyrics have the true romantic mystery and charm.... To write thus is no indifferent matter. It indicates not only long work but long brooding on the beauty and mystery of life."—The Louisville Post. ”

“ THE IMMORTAL LURE
CALE YOUNG RICE
It is great art—with great vitality. James Lane Allen.
In the midst of the Spring rush there arrives one book for which all else is pushed aside.... We have been educated to the belief that a man must be long dead before he can be enrolled with the great ones. Let us forget this cruel teaching.... This volume contains four poetic dramas all different in setting, and all so beautiful that we cannot choose one more perfect than another.... Too extravagant praise cannot be given Mr. Rice.—The San Francisco Call. ”

“ The Glasgow (Scotland) Herald says: "Yolanda of Cyprus is finely constructed; the irregular blank verse admirably adapted for the exigencies of intense emotion; the characters firmly drawn; and the climax serves the purpose of good stagecraft and poetic justice."
"It is well constructed and instinct with dramatic power."—Sydney Lee.
"It is as readable as a novel."—The Pittsburg Post.
"Here and there an almost Shakespearean note is struck. In makeup, arrangement, and poetic intensity it ranks with Stephen Phillips's work."—The Book News Monthly. ”

“ Crosses over, as one in a dream, and enters the bower. Marina goes, the gate opens, and Osio silently enters, coming down into the bower amorously. A long silence ... then slowly the Curtain.
ACT II A Year Has Elapsed
Scene: A sala, or hall, in the house of Rizzio. Its spacious walls and ceiling are frescoed with Virgilian scenes of a simpler and more beautiful kind than was usual to the decaying art of the period, and its high-arched open doors in the rear look out upon the terrace of Act I, toward the city, the Bay, Vesuvius—the whole magic curve of the haunting coast. ”

“ He is an optimist—and in these days an optimist is irresistible—and he can touch delicately things too holy for a rough or violent pathos."—The London Star (James Douglas) .
"Mr. Rice's highest gift is essentially lyrical. His lyrics have a charm and grace of melody distinctively their own."—The London Bookman.
"Mr. Rice is keenly responsive to the loveliness of the outside world, and he reveals this beauty in words that sing themselves."—The Boston Transcript.
"Mr. Rice's work is everywhere marked by true imaginative power and elevation of feeling."—The Scotsman. ”

“ Rice's lyrics are deeply impressive. A large number are complete and full-blooded works of art."—Prof. Wm. Lyon Phelps (Yale University) .
"Far Quests contains much beautiful work—the work of a real poet in imagination and achievement."—Prof. J. W. Mackail (Oxford University) .
"Mr. Rice is determined to get away from local or national limitations and be at whatever cost universal.... These poems are always animated by a force and freshness of feeling rare in work of such high virtuosity."—The Scotsman (Edinburgh) . ”

“ It is also lofty in conception, lucid and felicitous in style, and the dramatic pulse throbs in every line."—The Chicago Record-Herald.
"The characters are drawn with force and the play is dignified and powerful," and adds that if it does not succeed on the stage it will be "because of its excellence."—The Springfield Republican.
"Mr. Rice is one of the few present-day poets who have the steadiness and weight for a well-sustained drama."—The Louisville Post (Margaret Anderson) . ”

“ There is a temptation to quote such verses for their melody, dignity of form, beauty of imagery and height of inspiration."—The Chicago Journal.
"'Love's Cynic' (a long poem in the volume) might be by Browning at his best."—Pittsburg Gazette-Times.
"This is a serious, and from any standpoint, a successful piece of work ... in it are poems that will become classic."—Passaic (New Jersey) News.
"Mr. Rice must be hailed as one among living masters of his art, one to whom we may look for yet greater things."—Presbyterian Advance. ”

“ No one has a better understanding of the development of dramatic action than Mr. Rice.—The Book News Monthly (Albert S. Henry.)
Country Life in America
The World's Work
The Garden Magazine
DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & CO., GARDEN CITY, N. Y.
MANY GODS
By
CALE YOUNG RICE
"These poems are flashingly, glowingly full of the East.... What I am sure of in Mr. Rice is that here we have an American poet whom we may claim as ours."—The North American Review (William Dean Howells) .
"Mr. Rice has the gift of leadership ... and he is a force with whom we must reckon."—The Boston Transcript. ”